Hello everyone,
I am new to this forum, and came across it while googling for help on an issue I recently had. I have a house in Maine, and recently had an outdoor kitchen constructed, with an Argentine style grill. The grill is wood fired, and is constructed of stainless steel. The contractor installed the grill in a thick granite enclosure, lined with firebrick. I used the grill a few times this summer without issue - but recently had a party where we used the grill (with wood - the wood is lighted in the enclosure on the left side of the grill - as embers form, these fall through a grate and then are raked across the firebrick under the grill), and the granite enclosure on the bottom of the grill cracked (from front to back). It cracked rather loudly, and we noticed water leaking from the crack. I had noticed that the outside surfaces of the granite enclosure would get quite hot during use - but never expected that the granite couldn't take the heat. After conferring with some of the stone folks, they suggested that there wasn't enough firebrick between the heat source and the granite, or that insulating firebrick or an insulating blanket should have been used, to reduce heat to the granite. I'm hoping some of you might have some thoughts on this - should we have used insulating firebrick instead of regular refractory firebrick? would an insulating blanket under the firebrick (between firebrick and granite) have been better? Or should we just use another layer of firebrick (the bottom layer of firebrick is actually only a half height of firebrick rather than full height).
Steve
![[Hearth.com] Cracked granite outdoor grill - looking for advice](https://www.hearth.com/talk/attachments/grill-webp.246828/ "[Hearth.com] Cracked granite outdoor grill - looking for advice")
![[Hearth.com] Cracked granite outdoor grill - looking for advice](https://www.hearth.com/talk/attachments/grill-crack-1-webp.246829/ "[Hearth.com] Cracked granite outdoor grill - looking for advice")
![[Hearth.com] Cracked granite outdoor grill - looking for advice](https://www.hearth.com/talk/attachments/grill-crack-2-webp.246830/ "[Hearth.com] Cracked granite outdoor grill - looking for advice")
I am new to this forum, and came across it while googling for help on an issue I recently had. I have a house in Maine, and recently had an outdoor kitchen constructed, with an Argentine style grill. The grill is wood fired, and is constructed of stainless steel. The contractor installed the grill in a thick granite enclosure, lined with firebrick. I used the grill a few times this summer without issue - but recently had a party where we used the grill (with wood - the wood is lighted in the enclosure on the left side of the grill - as embers form, these fall through a grate and then are raked across the firebrick under the grill), and the granite enclosure on the bottom of the grill cracked (from front to back). It cracked rather loudly, and we noticed water leaking from the crack. I had noticed that the outside surfaces of the granite enclosure would get quite hot during use - but never expected that the granite couldn't take the heat. After conferring with some of the stone folks, they suggested that there wasn't enough firebrick between the heat source and the granite, or that insulating firebrick or an insulating blanket should have been used, to reduce heat to the granite. I'm hoping some of you might have some thoughts on this - should we have used insulating firebrick instead of regular refractory firebrick? would an insulating blanket under the firebrick (between firebrick and granite) have been better? Or should we just use another layer of firebrick (the bottom layer of firebrick is actually only a half height of firebrick rather than full height).
Steve
